It was the sixth day of April in the seventh year of Hongwu in the Song Dynasty.
Just when the "Shuigou United Fleet" of the Great Jin Kingdom came along the Juma River to the Baigou River. On the battlefield on the north bank of the Baigou River, shouts of death, shelling, and explosions of bombs were heard. This long and narrow fighting area is now as if they are in a thunder purgatory.
This should be the first "artillery-dominated" war in human history in this time and space!
Because both warring parties have a large number of artillery or cannons, and they have developed tactics around artillery and cannons.
Before Wanyan Xiebao's army pressed forward, the main force of two armies of the Song Army had reached the north bank of Baigou River through the pontoon bridge erected on Baigou River. After Wanyan Xiebao's army came over with great momentum, Yue Fei quickly pulled the main force of another army across the Baigou River.
As of the fourth night of April, before a fierce exchange of artillery fire broke out on the north bank of the Baigou River, Yue Fei had already captured five infantry generals from the Second Army, four infantry generals from the Sixth Army, and four infantry generals from the Ninth Army. There are artillery generals of the Second Army (owing one 5-pound artillery squadron), artillery generals of the Sixth Army (owing two 5-pound artillery squadrons), artillery generals of the Ninth Army (owing two 5-pound artillery squadrons), and the Second and Sixth Army Artillery Generals (owing two 5-pound artillery squadrons). , the commanding generals and engineer generals of the Ninth Army, plus the cavalry generals of the Second Army and the Sixth Army, a total of 24 generals' troops all crossed the Baigou River. The total force crossing the river was less than 42,000 men, and there were 100 artillery pieces of various kinds.
The troops of Wanyan Xiebao's command were much larger, with a strength of 80,000, twice as many as Yue Fei's men! There are 108 large tubes and 202 hot pots. The total number is 310, which is more than three times that of Yue Fei!
In addition, Xiebao also has a mobile cannon team on hand that imitates the Poxi Army of the Western Tang Dynasty. It is equipped with dozens of small cannons that can be easily disassembled and assembled and can be operated by twelve people - the effective range of this weapon There are only sixty or seventy steps, and he can only throw one five- or six-pound bomb at a time.
But because it was easy to make, repair, and transport, and the five- to six-pound bombing pot was quite powerful, it became a weapon used by the Western Tang Dynasty to sweep away the Western Regions.
Wanyan Xiebao participated in the Western Tang Dynasty's war to regain the four towns of Anxi. Of course he knew the wonderful use of these small cannons - they were not effective against moving targets, but they were good at attacking enemy camps, castles and immobile infantry formations. However, it is very effective. Especially when our own side has the advantage of cavalry and can firmly control the battlefield and limit the enemy's ability to move, these small cannons are simply great weapons!
However, in the battles on April 5th and 6th, Wanyan Xiebao's small cannon was not used. Because from the first wave of fierce exchanges of artillery fire between the two sides, the Song Army dominated the battlefield!
Because the terrain north of the Baigou River was not open, and the Song army was arrayed with its back to the water, the Jin people's Tiefutu and Guaizima could not be used at all. Therefore, whoever has more powerful cannons will be able to take the initiative on the battlefield.
The power of the Song Army's 100 cannons clearly exceeded the Jin Army's more than 300 cannons!
The Song Army's artillery, especially the 52 5-pound cannons, not only fired quickly and accurately, but their effective range was much further than Wanyan Xiebao's 10-pound cannon!
What makes Wanyan Xiebao even more troubled is that these 5-pound cannons are flexible and light, and can move quickly on the muddy and broken roads on the north bank of the Baigou River... Therefore, they can concentrate their firepower to support the Song Army's attack on a certain section of the Jin Dynasty. The offensive of the military position.
The Xiebao's 10-pound bronze cannon weighed several thousand kilograms and was very difficult to move. It could not be used intensively, so it had to be evenly distributed on the ten-mile battlefield.
So for more than a day, Xiebao's 80,000 people have been suppressed and beaten by Yue Fei's 40,000 people!
If Xie Bao hadn't been well dispatched and deployed two lines of defense from the beginning, his 80,000-strong army might have been defeated by Yue Fei!
Yesterday, he first asked his subordinates to use grain trucks to load soil to form the first barrier; then he ordered his soldiers to pile up soil with straw bags a hundred steps behind the grain truck defense line and erect wooden fences to form the second line of defense. .
As a result, before his second line of defense was established, Yue Fei's cannon started roaring!
76 long-barreled cannons (including 52 5-pound cannons and 24 10-pound cannons) were concentrated together, aiming at the left wing of the Jin Army's defense line and bombarding them for an entire hour!
Wanyan Xiebao, no, all the Jin soldiers did not expect that the artillery preparations before the enemy infantry attack could last up to an hour! 76 cannons fired continuously during this hour, at least 5,000 shells tilted towards the left wing of the Jin army's defense line!
The Jin soldiers' grain truck defense line was riddled with holes, the position was riddled with bullet marks, and corpses killed by artillery shells were scattered everywhere, looking ugly. The artillery fire continued for three quarters of an hour. The Khitan and Han troops who were thrown in front of the formation and were bombarded could no longer withstand it. Before the Song army could attack, they retreated to the second line holding their heads and crying.
Wanyan Xiebao had to personally lead the Jurchen soldiers to supervise the battle. He chopped off three to four hundred heads in one go to calm the situation and forced these Khitan and Han people who had no "martial ethics" to go back and continue to be bombarded.
But they had no effect other than blocking the cannons... because when they returned to their position, the Song Army's infantry had already begun to move forward.
Those were not ordinary infantry, but rows of "armored grenadiers" - everyone was wearing armor, and everyone was carrying bombs!
This is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that more than a dozen 5-pound cannons actually move forward with the "Panzer Grenadier"!
These cannons were pushed and dragged by horses to a few dozen steps in front of the Jin soldiers' position, and then they were fired with heartless shotguns!
Is there any need to say more about the power of shotgun blasts? After several rounds of shotgun blast, Wanyan Xiebao's left wing was directly smashed. The Khitan soldiers and Han soldiers who had just been forced back to the battlefield ran into the opponent's shotguns. Under the shotguns, there were layers of corpses. It was simply a big pile of corpses.
The Song Army's "Panzergrenadiers" didn't even throw grenades. They charged directly, stepping on the corpses of the Jin soldiers and breaking through Wanyan Xiebao's left-wing front line!
Fortunately, Wanyan Xiebao still had a second line, and he immediately deployed Jurchen cavalry to counterattack, finally forcing the breakthrough Song infantry to form a square formation and temporarily switch to defense.
Wanyan Xiebao took advantage of this opportunity to withdraw his first-line troops and artillery to the second line (some artillery was still lost, but most of them were still there) and re-defended. At the same time, he also deployed troops to launch several waves of counterattacks in an attempt to delay Yue Fei's attack. Attack to buy more time for your men to repair and strengthen their fortifications.
The counterattack launched by Xie Bao did have some effect. Yue Fei was forced to disperse the concentrated 5-pound cannon to support the various infantry generals who were attacked. By the time Yue Fei's army repelled several waves of counterattacks by the Jin soldiers and stabilized the newly captured position, it was already dark.
After dark, the two sides did not engage in large-scale night battles, but only launched several harassing attacks. The main focus was on adjusting the defense line, strengthening defenses and preparing to launch a new offensive the next day.
What the officers and soldiers of Puluhun's Shuigou Fleet heard when they marched towards Baigou River on April 6th was that the artillery of Yue Fei's command was concentrating firepower on the middle of the second line of defense of Wanyan Xiebao's command!
Maybe the endless bombardment seemed to attract everyone's attention, maybe the people of Song Dynasty didn't even know that the Kingdom of Jin actually had such a weird military unit as the "Shuigou Fleet".
So when Puluhun's fleet turned a bend and suddenly appeared on the Baigou River, the Song troops on both sides of the Baigou River were unprepared!
Arranged along the river bank was the Song Army's baggage convoy. The Song Army soldiers guarding the convoy all stared blankly at the "ditch warship" that suddenly came from the Juma River. They didn't know it for a moment. How to attack them?
When some civil servants recruited from Hejian Prefecture and Daming Prefecture saw these warships, they even exclaimed!
"No! The gold thief came from the ditch! The gold thief turned into a water thief..."
The sound of alarm horns and gongs also suddenly sounded. Puluhun shouted angrily: "The surprise attack has been successful! Guys, work harder and rush over!"
When the horns and gongs sound, the battle begins immediately!
Those guarding the baggage vehicles were all heavy soldiers of the Song Army. They were not civil servants. Most of them were old soldiers. They were not interested in making contributions and only wanted to complete their military service safely, so they were treated as soldiers. Received heavy supplies and troops. But their ability to kill enemies is still there!
And because they usually escort carts, they have room to place divine arm bows. Therefore, the Song Army's baggage troops are now equipped with divine arm bows!
Following the command of the officers of the baggage army, some of the veterans escorting the car took out the divine arm bows from the car, opened the bow string, attached the wooden feather arrow, and then aimed at the Jin warship on the water and shot.
There were also some veterans who escorted the car, shouting and suppressing the civilians, instructing them to remove the shields from the car, and then support them side by side to form a shield wall.
But what use are these wooden feather arrows to Puluhun's "Ditch Battleship"? No matter how penetrating the wooden feather arrows are, they cannot penetrate the ship's planks and the wooden rafters supported on the deck. The soft sound of arrows hitting the wooden board stimulated the oarsmen of the Golden Soldiers to work hard. The bow of the ship hit the white waves, and the speed of the ship increased. The entire "ditch fleet" flew quickly. It also seems to be following the water of Baigou River, heading towards the pontoon bridge connecting the Song Army in Henan and Hebei.
When Puluhun saw the pontoon bridge from a distance, he saw the people on the bridge panicking, abandoning their vehicles, and running towards both banks. However, the north bank of the Baigou River in this section was empty and there was nothing. A stone's throw away from the river bank The place inside and outside is the back of Yue Fei's troops.
On the south bank, there are vehicles being evacuated.
The raid was a real success!
Puluhun turned his head sharply and ordered: "Lower the anchor, stop moving forward, and then explode the ship!"
